The Invention of Hugo Cabret review
Jun. 16th, 2010 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, was on my Amazon wishlist last time I decided to make an Amazon order, so I bought it, though I couldn't remember anything about it or why I had decided I wanted it.
The story is about a boy who lives in a train station, keeping the clocks in good repair after his uncle, the official timekeeper, disappears. It's a simple story of friendship, hidden pasts, and broken automata, which is well-written, engaging and very entertaining. What makes it special, however, is the book itself. As an object, it is truly beautiful, with black edged pages and tons of gorgeous charcoal drawings, which tell parts of the story. It's very heavy and has about 530 pages, but it only took me about an hour to read it, as the number of pictures and the way the text is scattered across the pages means there isn't actually much to it in terms of word count. It was fun, though, and I'm glad just to own it because it's so pretty.
The story is about a boy who lives in a train station, keeping the clocks in good repair after his uncle, the official timekeeper, disappears. It's a simple story of friendship, hidden pasts, and broken automata, which is well-written, engaging and very entertaining. What makes it special, however, is the book itself. As an object, it is truly beautiful, with black edged pages and tons of gorgeous charcoal drawings, which tell parts of the story. It's very heavy and has about 530 pages, but it only took me about an hour to read it, as the number of pictures and the way the text is scattered across the pages means there isn't actually much to it in terms of word count. It was fun, though, and I'm glad just to own it because it's so pretty.
